CCSD news: Volunteers, field trips, and Red Ribbon Week

CHURCHILL COUNTY MIDDLE SCHOOL

This year CCMS Student Council helped with the Maine Street Spooktacular event on Halloween. They volunteered to help run the pumpkin painting station, the bounce house, and the coloring stations.

“These kids did such a great job and had so much fun making connections in our community,” said adviser Courtney Aguilera.

One focal point of the CCMS student council this year is students taking opportunities to be Global Citizens and Collaborative Learners. With this in mind, the student council has increased its community presence and they were also key players in getting microwaves into the lunchroom for all students to use.

“These students have been so busy this year,” Aguilera said. “Behind the scenes, they have been planning family engagement nights, dress-up days, holiday activities, assemblies, and dances. So stay tuned because there is even more fun coming at CCMS.”

NUMA

Students in Janine Mello’s class took a field trip to Fort Churchill as an extension of what they learned in the classroom about the geography of Nevada in social studies and weathering, erosion, and deposition in science.

“This field trip allowed students to connect their learning to the real world, which makes it more meaningful and exposes them to the rich history of our state,” Mello said.

Students got to make adobe bricks, tour the ruins, and also got to see different Nevada artifacts like gold, silver, and Tule ducks.

“I really enjoy taking this field trip with my students each year. It supports our targets for learning about Nevada and our science unit on the Earth's surfaces,” Mello said.

E.C. BEST

This year’s theme for Red Ribbon Week was “Be Kind to Your Mind, Live Drug Free.”

ECB celebrates Red Ribbon Week because they believe in the importance of educating their students about how to live the healthiest life possible.

“Our principal, Mr. (Keith) Boone, likes to call it Blue Ribbon Week because we are the ‘Best’ and we deserve a blue ribbon,” said school counselor Janell Suess.

Many activities were going on during ECB’s Blue Ribbon Week. Together Suess and physical education teacher Christine Mori had games in the gym at lunch to remind students about the importance of staying active.

There were announcements in the morning to remind students about ways they can stay healthy, such as going outside and playing, talking to someone they trust if they have a problem, only taking medications from a trusted adult, playing with friends, and listening to music that makes them happy. They also had dress-up days and a door-decorating contest. Students are randomly picked by Suess to judge the doors.

“It is so fun to see all the creative ideas our staff and their students come up with,” Suess said.

This year the winners were:

1. Kari Lister’s class “Drugs Will Make Your Mind Batty”

2. Jenna McElhannon’s class “We are Thankful for Being Drug3rde”

3. A tie between Ashley Youles and Kailey Hughes’ classrooms “We Would Rather Eat Bugs than do Drugs” and “Say Boo to Drugs because … .”

According to the Substance Abuse and Health Services Administration, it is never too early to talk to your children about alcohol and other drugs. At a very young age, children start to view alcohol and other drugs in a positive way.

“If we do not talk to them about the risks, they may see no harm in trying. Which is why we feel so strongly about starting this conversation and educating our students at ECB,” Suess said.

If you are interested in learning more about the history of Red Ribbon Week, visit www.redribbon.org.

LAHONTAN

Students in Crystal Cabral’s first-grade class did a STEAM project in partners. The challenge was to create an elevated broom out of four straws and two pieces of tape. Then the students had to see how many pumpkins they could fit on the broom. The winning partners got eight pumpkins on their broom.

“Not only was this a super fun activity to do with my students, but it was an important lesson on working together to problem solve,” Cabral said.

NORTHSIDE EARLY LEARNING CENTER

As an introduction to careers at the pre-kindergarten level, NELC held Community Helper Day on Nov. 2. "Community Helpers" is a themed unit that children explore as part of the Teaching Strategies Curriculum. Classroom activities include intentional teaching experiences that relate to the people who work in community helper positions.

As an extension to classroom lessons, NELC invited several community partners to come out for Community Helper Day including people the children might see in their day-to-day life experiences. This year, the Fallon Police Department, Banner Churchill Community Hospital Ambulance and Care Flight, Naval Air Station Fallon-Military Liaison, Military Police and dog Rosie, Tumbleweed Garbage Disposal and Union Pacific Railroad all participated in the event.

“The students traveled around to each of the representatives' vehicles and stations to see how they operated and asked questions like, ‘What is this for?’ when viewing strange or unusual tools,” said Early Childhood & Online Learning TOSA Amanda Hammer.

NELC staff, parents, and students were able to take a tour of a Union Pacific Locomotive.

“The excitement from the day left smiles on the faces of not only the NELC participants but the community helper representatives as well,” Hammer said. “It was a rich learning experience for our students as they start to learn about what careers they might like to explore further as they move up into higher grade levels.”